Social media is about connections and conversations. The most successful online networks make it easy for both businesses and average users to manage both. Twitter keeps conversations fresh and tracks mentions, network, and engagement. Facebook constantly unveils new tools to do the same.
From an ROI perspective, most other social media networks had a leg up on Foursquare – at least from a social media manager’s perspective. Sure, you could add your location and post specials, but the network’s two-way conversation capabilities and analytics tools were limited. However, now Foursquare is unveiling a new merchant dashboard that allows social media managers to do more, most notably:
- Share Local Updates with loyal followers via the Friends feed
- More easily measure success
If you have not yet made your business a destination on Foursquare, now is the time to do it and take advantage of all the new updates Foursquare now offers.
friendly reminders
Businesses already use trending tweets and Facebook posts to keep followers and fans abreast of their latest specials, news, and changes. Now, Foursquare will let you do the same. The new Foursquare for merchants allows you to post pictures, specials, and updates out to your most loyal Foursquare friends. Nearby Foursquare-ers and the leagues of your own most loyal can now look at their Friend feed anytime and not only see what their friends are doing and where, but also your most current updates and incentives.
Promoted updates for all businesses are coming to Foursquare soon, but for now, start the Local Update tool to strengthen your brand’s presence and maintain top of the mind brand awareness. Be proactive. Keep fresh information trending and location traffic lively.
measuring up
Accurate and current analytics are invaluable to identifying marketing success. The new Foursquare merchant dashboard makes it easier to keep a close eye on your locations’ check-ins, messages, and comments with more clear insight performance graphics and multi-location check-in analysis capabilities. Track the messages that impact your bottom line, discover when it’s best to post to your location’s friends, and explore even more Foursquare-based social media tactics to garner even better results, for your stores, in the future.
saturation is key
Gaining a strong presence on Foursquare has the potential to create stronger brand presence and customer loyalties across all of your social media properties. Foursquare may not have as many users as Facebook, but it offers one key conversation tool that other platforms lack: cross-network sharing. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ all vie for the top social sharing network crown. However, because Foursquare serves a slightly different function than those all-encompassing update networks, it allows users to share photos, badges, and check-ins to other social networks. While cross-network sharing is possible on other networks, so far it is only possible with the involvement of a third party software, like HootSuite.
Encourage your customers to take the easy way out on cross-network sharing – use Foursquare to give them reasons to start checking-in, leaving tips, earning badges, and commenting on every platform possible.